This chapter is shorter than I would like, so if you'd like an additional chapter this week, shoot me a review! (I'm feeling nice today XD)


When Kagome awoke the next morning, it was drizzling ever so slightly. She stretched as she slid out of the bed, feeling surprisingly well rested for sleeping in a pile of furs. But then again, it smelled generously like her half demon companion, and Kagome wasn't ready to think about what that meant. Her clothing had dried overnight, so she clothed herself back in her own clothes and neatly folded the red kimono and set it on the fur bed. She slid the ribbon out of her hair as she moved, running her fingers through her long, dark locks in an attempt to get the snarls out.

Curiously, there was no sign of her companion. Kagome approached the front of the cave and peered out, looking towards the trees where she had seen him disappear into the night before. Still nothing.

Pushing aside the slight tinge of worry over his rapid disappearance, Kagome pulled her hair back, and then approached the embers of the fire from the night before, busying herself in building it back up again. When she had the fire going again, she inspected the remnants of their dinner. Not much was left, a little fish and maybe a handful of rice.

Mentally running through some of her favorite recipes, Kagome decided a stew would be easiest. Of course, such thoughts only made Kagome think of her old home. She had been brought to the shrine to train under the priest when she was five years old. The priest had been a good teacher and mentor. He treated her akin to a grandfather and his granddaughter. The villagers had been good to her, supplying her with food and supplies in exchange for her service. Kagome felt a pain in her chest at the thought of her former people. Despite how it had ended, she had loved her life in the river village. She pushed the sadness away- she could never return, so it didn't matter anymore, She spent a good ten minutes rummaging around to find a decent pot, managing to find something that was too small for a large stew, but that would do for now. She made a mental note to ask Inuyasha about that later.

Gleefully, Kagome skipped to the hot spring and filled the pot with warm water, returning to nestle it within the fire. The warm water began to heat quickly while Kagome fished out the soy sauce and knife she'd taken with her banishment, painstakingly taking her time in chopping the fish into proper sizes and adding them to the pot. She also fetched the small pot she'd been given, hoping to make tea with the mint she'd collected. She was so busy in her preparations she didn't sense Inuyasha until she looked up and there he was, startling the poor priestess nearly to death.

"Gah!" Kagome shrieked, nearly dropping the onions she'd been preparing. "Don't do that Inuyasha! You scared me half to death!" He raised an eyebrow at her, looking almost amused.

"You mean you didn't sense me? Some priestess." Why that arrogant toad…

"Fine, see if I share any food with you!" She huffed, turning back to finish prepping the onions.

"Do you need anything?" Funny how quickly his attitude changed when she mentioned food… rolling her eyes, Kagome did a quick overview of her ingredients. Hmm.

"Do you have any salt? It should be fairly good outside of that, even though there aren't a lot of vegetables." She carefully added soy sauce as Inuyasha went about for salt, testing the stew and finding it definitely needed salt. He handed her a small leather pouch that he'd retrieved from somewhere in the cave, and Kagome noticed he'd redawned the red kimono. She opened the pouch to find rock salt. She carefully added some to the stew, then tasted it.

"Hmm, I think it needs more. What do you think?" He looked surprised when she offered the taste to him, but accepted.

"Tastes fine to me." He admitted, deciding to keep it to himself that it was better than anything he'd ever made. Nevertheless, Kagome added a bit more salt and then began to dish out the stew, surprising the half demon with the mint tea as well.

"It's not much, but good for our first breakfast together no?" She smiled and took a sip of the tea, reveling in the smooth minty flavor. When she'd opened her eyes, Inuyasha was already reaching for seconds, the tea gone as well. Kagome refilled his tea for him before picking up her own bowl of stew and digging in.

-0-

"Is there anywhere around here good for foraging?" Kagome asked after Inuyasha had finished his third helping. Her confidence was greatly boosted by Inuyasha's enthusiastic reception of the meal.

"A couple places maybe, depends on what you're looking for." He drank the last of his tea before setting the cup aside. "What did you have in mind?"

"Hmm, rice for sure. I was hoping for more herbs and maybe vegetables too. It goes a long way in making a balanced meal."

"Dunno about vegetables, but the herbs maybe. There's plenty of rice here until we need more. I can get meat easily too." He was rewarded with Kagome's warm smile.

"Would you take me to look for herbs? I'd like to look for cooking and medicinal herbs." At Inuyasha's consenting nod, Kagome excitedly ran for her bag, removing her belongings and setting them neatly against the rock wall to make room.

"You can uh, use the trunk there." Inuyasha looked bashful as he nodded towards the back of the cave. Running her fingers along the back, as it was pretty dark, Kagome came across a smaller but sturdy trunk.

"Where did this come from?" Kagome asked, lifting the lid to look inside as curiosity filled her.

"Caravan. Wealthy family or something. It was filled with rocks and some nice cloth, but it's pretty empty now. You can have it for yourself and all your… things, I guess." He turned away to hide his embarrassment as Kagome inspected the trunk. He had said something about rocks and cloth, but Kagome found nothing but a pile of fabric at the bottom and what looked like an old katana against the back. Ignoring the sword, she lifted out the fabric, inspecting it, to find it was a woman's kimono. A very nice one but much too large for her. It would either need to be resized or used as backup. Still, the gesture meant a lot to her.

"Thank you, Inuyasha. You're very good to me." She smiled at him again even though he wasn't looking. He mumbled something then stalked towards the front of the cave to wait for her. Kagome carefully stored her things in the chest, then took the now empty bag and went to join Inuyasha for foraging.

Thankfully, this time she convinced him to actually walk instead of leaping through trees trying to kill her. He'd scoffed loudly, crossing his arms into his sleeves, but led the way on foot anyways. Making sure to use the razor sharp claws on his hands to clear paths for her. Kagome eyed the damage to the foliage those claws made, but somehow she never once felt fear.

Finally, Inuyasha led her to what looked like a meadow, with lush plants and flowers growing all over. Kagome already recognized multiple plants she could use.

"This is wonderful!" she exclaimed, rushing towards a plant she recognized as lemongrass. "This makes good tea as well." She explained as she brushed her fingers along the strand. Inuyasha nodded a few feet away from her.

"I can smell that stuff you made tea with this morning, couple plants near here, that's how I knew where to look." Kagome shuffled over to where he directed, only to find he was right- several mint plants, surrounded by plants for green tea and what she suspected was sage, formed a nice corner of the meadow.

"I'm gonna look around." Inuyasha mumbled, leaving Kagome to her foraging and disappearing into the greenery. Kagome waved him off and immediately began collecting, gathering several patches of mint, green tea, sage and even some mushrooms she found hidden under one of the plants. She also recognized another plant as potatoes and found a nice sharp rock to help her along in digging. She had several of the roots dug, as well as several medicinal herbs in her collection when Inuyasha returned. He held more fish in one hand.

"What's that?" He asked, sniffing curiously. Privately Kagome wondered how good his nose really was.

"They're potatoes, it's a root. Very yummy in a stew or when they're cooked in a fire. Did you find the fish nearby?" He nodded in reply, still curious about the potatoes. "One of the best streams near here. We're not too far from a decent hot spring either." Kagome's eyes lit up at the mention of a hot spring, and he made a mental note to take her there soon.

"Find anything else?" He asked, noticing how full her bag was. She opened the bag to show him, beaming.

"Yes, we have plenty for the next couple days. I was hoping for more vegetables, but that may just have to wait." Inuyasha shifted, looking a little uncomfortable.

"Well…" He finally mumbled, "there might be a village where we could find vegetables. If you really want them. We'd need to take a detour on the way though, to find something to trade."

"A village?" Kagome was uneasy, remembering her own recent experience.

"Yeah," Inuyasha replied. "It would be a while though, I'd have to find something valuable or a big piece of game to trade."

"For some vegetables?" Kagome was dumbfounded. Inuyasha stiffened at the surprise in her voice. "Humans don't take well to demons buying from them."

"I understand. It's awful, but I guess that's how it works. I mean, I was banished for saving your life, but life can be cruel sometimes."


Unfortunately, I am not from japan nor and I very familiar with customs/plants that would have grown in the feudal era, so please forgive me if I make any mistakes.

Drop me some reviews and you might see another chapter this week!

xoxo